Black Mesa

Rank in Arizona: #129of 727 ranked
Overall score: Score 49.5 out of 100medium confidence
Category: Natural Landmark

Black Mesa, also called Big Mountain, is an upland mountainous mesa in northern Arizona, trending north in Navajo County and west and south-east in Apache County. In Navajo it is called Dziłíjiin, 'Black Mountain', and during Mexican rule of Arizona it was known as Mesa de las Vacas, Spanish for 'mesa of the cows'. It takes its dark appearance from its pinyon-juniper and mixed conifer woodlands.

Where it is

Black Mesa is a natural landmark near Kayenta, in Navajo County. It is one of the natural landmarks in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.

How this ranking was reached

No official visitor count is published for Black Mesa, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.

Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.

Sources

Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates

Record last verified 2026-08-12.

More photographs

Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab)
Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab)

Nearby attractions

28 miles away
Navajo Code Talkers exhibit
A Kayenta exhibit, in a building behind a Burger King, on how Navajo code talkers secured US military communications in the Second World War.
Museum
32 miles away
Navajo National Monument
A National Park System unit on the Shonto Plateau preserving three Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings.
National Monument
36 miles away
Owl Rock
A 6,547-foot sandstone summit on Navajo Nation land north of Kayenta, held sacred as a spindle left by the Holy People.
Natural Landmark
36 miles away
Agathla Peak
An eroded volcanic plug rising more than 1,500 feet south of Monument Valley, held sacred by the Navajo and visible from U.S. Route 163.
Natural Landmark
40 miles away
Canyon de Chelly National Monument
Three canyons on Navajo Nation land, continuously inhabited for nearly 5,000 years and still farmed today.
National Monument
40 miles away
Awatovi Ruins
A National Historic Landmark on the Hopi Reservation holding a pueblo about 500 years old and a 17th-century Spanish mission.
Historic Site